---

A Prayer for Human Rights  Rabbi Brant Rosen Ruach Kol Chai - Spirit of All that Lives: Help us.Help us to uphold the values that are so central to whom we are: human beings created B'tzelem Elohim- in the image of God. Help us to recognize that the inherent dignity of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. The inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of...

---

Leader: Let us all refill our cups. [Take turns reading. Each person is invited to read a grouped set of lines - or to pass.] Tonight we drink four cups of the fruit of the vine. There are many explanations for this custom. They may be seen as symbols of various things: the four corners of the earth, for freedom must live everywhere; the four seasons of the year, for freedom's cycle must last through all the seasons; or the four...

---

A Cup to our Teachers: To those we have known and those whose work has inspired us, and made space for our lives. We are grateful to you who did and said things for the first time, who claimed and reclaimed our traditions, who forged new tools. Thank you to the teachers around us of all ages-- the people we encounter everyday--who live out their values in small and simple ways, and who are our most regular and loving reminders of...

---

... and now we're back for Round Two. Remember that matzah that we split a while back? This is where we eat the other half. Often, the grownups in a family hide that half of the matzah, and the children have to find it and ransom it back to them. After consulting with the youngest member of the family, we're foregoing that. (Unless that's been overruled, in which case we just need to forget that we read that last sentence.) The...

---

We sanctify the name of God and proclaim the holiness of this festival of Passover. With a blessing over wine, we lift our wine, our symbol of joy; let us welcome the festival of Passover. In unison, we say… Our God and God of our ancestors, we thank You for enabling us to gather in friendship, to observe the Festival of Freedom. Just as for many centuries the Passover Seder has brought together families and friends to retell the events that...

---

At a traditional seder, there is a cup of wine left on the table for the prophet Elijah. Toward the end of the night, the door is opened for Elijah, symbolizing that all are welcome at the seder, all can take refuge here. In this spirit, consider symbolically setting aside a table setting or opening the door to the 60 million refugees and displaced people around the world still waiting to be free — for all those who deserve to be...

---

We are going to conclude our dinner tonight with a celebratory toast - a l’chaim. Rather than filling our own cup tonight, though, and focusing on us as individuals, let’s fill someone else’s cup and recognize that, as a family and group of friends, we have the resources to help each other and those in our community if we are willing to share our resources and collaborate – whether those resources are time, money, skills, or any of the other gifts...

---

The great sage Hillel provided us with the tradition of constructing the Hillel sandwich, combining the bitterness of the maror with the sweetness of the charoset between the fortitude of the two pieces of matzah--the symbol of freedom. Through this ritual, we think about mortar and brick. We think of the Israelites traveling through the desert with no homes, no place to land and build up their strong communities, and only the matzah as a reminder of their freedom. It is...

---

In the Seder three matzot are placed on a plate. During this step the middle matzah is broken and a piece taken and hidden for later. Why is the matzah broken now when it is not needed for later in the ceremony? Because a key to freedom is to anticipate the future and make it real. The challenge of adulthood is to train ourselves to look at the long-term consequences. Slavery is a life where only the immediate is important, there...

---

WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THIS AS A JEW? The Jewish people has been a refugee people since biblical times. In the United States, we know the devastating consequences of turning away refugees. Less than a century ago, refugees fleeing the Holocaust were marked as security threats to the U.S., denied entry, and sent back to Europe to be brutally murdered. Furthermore, the value of welcoming, protecting, and loving the stranger appears in the Torah 36 times according to the Talmud...

---

What a blessing to live in a world in which fruit on the vine can turn into wine. What a blessing to come from a culture that tells stories and celebrates the seasons. What a blessing to exist in a universe that, after billions of years, has arrived at this moment, here and now, with us gathered around this table.

---

What a blessing to have friends at our table with whom to share this meal.

---

What a blessing to come from a culture that has such a rich story to tell, so full of symbols, like bitter herbs and charoset.